


Our Little Flower

by TheKeeper_of_TheSmut



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Murder Husbands, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 00:16:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12157713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheKeeper_of_TheSmut/pseuds/TheKeeper_of_TheSmut
Summary: Edward and Oswald adopt a baby and worry that she might be sick, turns out they have nothing to worry about. Done for Day 3 domestic. Again, Exams made this late.





	Our Little Flower

Edward enters the manor quietly, trying not to wake any sleeping occupants. It had been a long night, albeit a productive one, and Ed was eager to slide into bed next to his sleeping husband. The manor is almost eery at night, with no warm firelight or antique chandelier to illuminate the dark. It's part of why he'd hated staying here after…...the _incident_.

Ed doesn't believe in ghosts but the manor felt alive with the spirits of history past. He much preferred the sleek modern penthouse of the Lounge, but if Riddler was caught living there then the GCPD would slap Oswald with an aiding and abetting a criminal charge. So the penthouse was off limits and Ed's hideout was strictly for Riddler business. Plus the manor had its benefits, but Ed still hoped to convince Oswald to get an apartment or townhouse in Upper City Gotham and use the manor strictly for _other_ business.

He reached the top of the stairs and was headed to the room he shared with Oswald when he noticed the dim light from under the door next to theirs. Pushing the door open softly Ed smiled tenderly at the sight of his husband, settled in padded wood rocking chair, wrapped in the quilt from Ed's old apartment, and humming to the small two month old baby in his arms. His husband lifted his head up, apparently having heard the faint sound of the door opening.

Ed felt his heart clench with affection as he noted the peaceful smile on the other's face. How could he have possibly believed he was in love with anyone else?

“Hello, darling. How did it go?” Oswald asked softly. Ed crossed the room and leaned down to kiss him softly.

“We can discuss that tomorrow. How is she?” Oswald sighed softly.

“She still has a cough, but her fever is down. The tests results should be in tomorrow, let's hope it's not anything she inherited from her birth mother.”

Gertrud Kristen-Rose Cobblepot was born Rose Adrian Hoss. Her birth mother had passed away two days after having her due to complications. Edward and Oswald had been looking to adopt and took pity on the undersized little girl with the soft blonde hair. However, she'd been suffering from a cold on and off for the last month. The doctors were concerned it might be something she inherited from her mother, who had a weak immune system and a few other things that had led to kidney failure.

“I'm sure it's not, dear. She might just picked up a particularly tenacious cold or a bad cough. Now, it's late and it looks like she's out for the night. Why don't we head to bed?”

“Ed, what if something happens?” Edward knelt down to press his forehead to his husband's.

“I know you're worried, so am I. But we're not much use to her exhausted. Besides we have the baby monitor, if she starts coughing again we'll know.” Oswald relaxes slightly and leans into the comforting touch.

“You’re right, as usual.” Ed grins and gently takes their daughter from his husband.

He sets her back down in her crib, it’s painted purple with with green interior and a custom made penguin and question mark mobile. There’s also an umbrella over the top of it, to shield her from the sunlight that streams through the window each morning. He snorts when he sees the stuffed animal she’d chosen, she had a lot, gifts from Ed and Os’s friends. So each night they let her wrap her tiny little fingers around one, and that’s the one she sleeps with. Tonight the lucky winner was the Zsaszicorn, a light pink unicorn with rainbow mane and tail from Build-a-Bear.

Zsasz had modified the horn so that it looked bloody and there was a miniature teddy bear impaled on it. It was dressed in a black jacket and pants (Zsasz was going to attach a store bought plastic gun, but couldn’t find one proportionate), and the hair had been cut short and spiked. Well he supposed it was better than the polar bear in the miniature Freeze suit. There were others, but best not to dwell on the rather odd collection of toys they had. He leaned down and brushed the soft golden strands off his daughter’s forehead and kissed her chubby cheek.

“Night, princess,” he whispers. Oswald smiles, heart melting of the sight of his husband with their daughter. He can’t imagine why on earth Edward was so worried about being a father. Well, he can, but he’d prefer not to think about it.

~    *    ~

The next morning Oswald is sipping coffee at the breakfast table as Edward gets their daughter dressed for the day when Ivy comes in.

“Hiya, Pengy.”  
“Hello, Ivy,” he sighs, resigned to enduring the horrid nickname.

“Where’s the little flower?” Ed comes in at that moment, a fussy Rose in his arms.

“She’s not a morning glory, that’s for sure. I swear, somehow she’s even worse than Oswald about waking up.” Oswald sticks his tongue out like the mature adult he is. Ed hands him their daughter and goes to make her bottle.

Rose is dressed in a light blue shirt with green sparkly letters reading, ‘Daddy’s Little Princess’, on the front and some black leggings.

“Darling, where are her shoes?” Ed turns, eyes wide.

“How?! How on earth did sh-what did you-argh! They were on when we came down the stairs.” Ivy cackles, finding Ed’s exasperation hilarious. Ivy motions for Ed to go back to getting the little girl’s bottle and goes to locate the shoes.

Oswald nuzzles the girl’s nose, “Daddy’s little monster, more like. You, my dear, are going to make him lose it someday. First you lose your binkis, then your headbands, now your shoes.”

All of the items had been found, but how she kept losing them was the mystery. Rose gurgled and tried to grab Oswald’s pointed nose.

Ivy returned with the missing blue shoes and set them next to Oswald. “Can I feed her? Please.” Oswald nodded, carefully handing his child over, who was immediately fascinated by Ivy’s long bright red hair. Then sneezed loudly, looking startled by the loud sound she made. Her face starts turning red and she wails.

“Damn!” Ivy tries shushing her, but Rose sneezes again and starts coughing. Reluctantly she hands the baby back to Oswald, who adjusts her to lay against his shoulder. The noise draws Zsasz into the room, who’d just arrived to report to Oswald about an arms shipment delivery he oversaw last night.

To the shock of some, Zsasz actually loved kids, they just didn’t usually like him. Rose however, loved her ‘Uncle Zsasz’.

“Aww, my poor little Zsaszle-Dazzle.” Oswald huffs at the nickname.

Zsasz extracts the infant from his grip and carefully holds her up at eye level. Rose hiccups, coughing some more, before burbling happily.

“That’s my girl, smile for Uncle Zsasz.” Edward comes back in with her breakfast and looks between a pouting Ivy, his exasperated spouse, a cooing Zsasz, and his giggling daughter.

“I’m either crazier than I thought, or this is actually happening,” he huffs, handing the bottle to Zsasz who instantly adjusts the little girl to take her bottle.

Breakfast is relatively uneventful after that, with Zsasz giving his report and Ed and Ivy leaving to work on a plant based chemical compound to help Edward’s next scheme.

“Don’t forget Rose has an appointment at 2:00,” he calls.

“I never forget anything, dear.”  
“I’ll remind you of that next time I have to come get you because you worked through lunch and forgot to eat!” Ivy busts out laughing again and Rose giggles too.

~    *    ~

Oswald was sitting in the brightly colored flower patterned room at the pediatrician's office, Rose propped against his midsection. Edward was keeping their daughter entertained with a toy that had buttons and lights all over it and made whistle noises. Ed was mimicking the whistles back to their daughter, causing her to giggle. The doctor walks in and Oswald can feel his stomach knotting in anticipation.

“Good news! Your daughter doesn’t show any of the signs of a severely repressed immune system. There are signs of it being weakened, but that is indicative of allergies, usually a severe one.”

“Allergic to what?”

“Well, Mr. Cobblepot we have to do allergy testing. My nurse will bring in several clear bottles and put a drop of each one on her back, this will keep Rose from touching it. Once those dry into the skin we’ll see what she reacts to. Some things will turn red and irritated but we have to test the reaction. It involves a short poke, so she will get fussy. If it’s a severe reaction we are equipped to handle it. Treatment options are usually weekly or twice monthly allergy shots, and allergy medication.”

“Thank you, my husband and I were so worried.” The doctor smiles and Oswald gently strips his daughter out of her shirt and lays her down on her stomach on the bed. The nurse uses a marker to draw lines on her back , making almost perfectly evenly spaced dots down each column.  Once the drops have been applied to her skin the nurse leaves the room for a moment.

About eight minutes in and Rose is fussing, squirming and teary-eyed as her back starts turning red around some areas. Oswald feels itchy just looking at it. Ed attempts to distract their daughter again, but she refuses, small hiccuping wails start as the breaking out gets worse. About fifteen minutes later the nurse is back with an extremely small metal hook.

The doctor comes in too and watches her poke each of the dots. With each prick his daughter screams and Oswald hates that he can’t do anything.

“Shh, sweetie. It’s almost over, then mommy and daddy will take you to look at the fishies. Remember, you like the fishes.”

They needed to pick Ivy up at the aquarium later anyway. About five minutes of screaming crying baby later, the doctor tells them what she's allergic to while the nurse rubbed some cream on her back.

“It would appear she has a mild allergy to dust. The two big concerns are peanuts and pollen. Grass and trees seem fine, but flower pollen is definitely a big issue. Two allergy shots monthly and a dose of children’s allergy medicine if she’s going outside and she should be fine. I also recommend any dusting to be done in the house be done while she’s out and crack a window to air it out. Don’t let dust build up.”

“Do we need to watch if she eats anything with peanuts in it? Will it cause a severe reaction if it's anything other than a regular peanut?”

“Yes, any type of peanut anything in her system can make her very sick.”

“We have a friend who’s a florist, what do we do when she’s around the baby.”

"Well, even with the allergy shots and medicine I’d ask your friend to change and wash her hands before holding her. Other than that, she’s fit as a fiddle.”

“Thank you.”  
"If you’ll follow my nurse here she’ll set up a schedule for little Rose’s shots.”

~    *    ~

“What?! You're telling me a kid named Rose of all things, is allergic to flowers.”

“Yes, Ivy, and if you want to hold her you’ll have to wash your hands thoroughly and not wear clothes that you’ve worn around plants.”

“Pengy, I live in a greenhouse.”

"I’ve washed some things you had at the manor, they will be staying there from now on, that way you have something to wear when you come over and want to hold Rose.”

Meanwhile Edward was holding Rose so she could look at the sharks swimming around them in the glass tunnel. Rose was calm now, sucking happily on a binki with a penguin on it. Ed was whispering excitedly to her, no doubt spouting off facts about sharks. Ed turns to smile at him and Oswald thinks how immensely lucky he is that he has this second chance. Unknown to him Ed is thinking something similar, immensely glad Oswald gave him a chance to make things right between them. Neither one has ever been happier.


End file.
